It's official that I'm employed. I decided to take an office job that is located close to where we live. I was fortunate enough to be offered a couple of positions, but cHubby thought that this is the best offer. While in my dozen of interviews, I realized that I should really start focusing more on adoptees in Sydney. I backed out of the Sydney event for a couple of reasons. But when people ask me about my goals in life....they are always centered around international adoption and Korea. I'm hoping to host an informal social BBQ in December for KADs.

It will be good to start working because I spend most of time sleeping. cHubby took me out to Bilson's to celebrate. I called our families in the US; they were delighted about the news. I haven't told anyone that we aren't coming home for Christmas. It's hard because my grandma always ends the conversation with "hurry home". "We'll try", I reply but I know that I'm lying.

I don't know if it's the Australian sun and weather...but I've been in fairly good moods lately. I had one of my usual migraines over the weekend, but it's been a long time since I've had one. Our life has been low stress since we've been here and truth be told, I feel more at ease with myself than I've felt before in my life.

I've been applying to jobs that I do not have any qualifications for. I was thinking that I would like to work for a community organization. I watched the The Girl in the Mirror and I had a small epiphany that I wanted to work in post adoption. While someday in the distance - I would love to go back to school and do a study on post adoption. This is not my path yet. Someday I hope....

So I've turned my back on post adoption, diversity, cross-cultural learning..I've been applying to office jobs; financially I'll need to take one soon. The rest of my time has been sitting in front of the TV watching Korean dramas. I don't know if it is going to improve my Korean, but it has been getting me excited about our upcoming trip. I miss Korea but I am falling in love with the natural beauty of Australia too.

I called my dad and told him that we were coming over Christmas. I think he was excited...I hope he was...

I finally had the chance to see Adopted the Movie. It has been a topic for many adoption boards for the last year and being away from America. I didn't get the chance to see it. I brought it back with me from our trip. I thought that it was okay. I started watching it and within 15 minutes I was going to shut it off. I didn't care for the adoptive parents in the movie and I didn't want to watch it with a bad taste in my mouth. I continued and watching because I have a soft spot for KADs. But then as much as I don't understand adoptive parents...they were real people, not like these crazy adoptive parents. I think that the Gooley's are horrible self-righteous individuals.

Ethiopia is not a signatory to the Hague Convention which requires international adoption be used only as a last resort. So as a result, a completely unregulated industry has grown up. More than 70 agencies operate here, almost half are unregistered. Corruption, fraud and deception are rife.

Sick and wrong. It just reminds me when I was asked discuss ethical international adoption. No such thing exists.

I like blogging. Honestly I do. It's been busy and difficult to do without the Internet. I'm going to backlog so these last couple of months are going to be a bit blurry.

I hope that remember to read this message before I go back and read the others. Hmm

I love to read. I just finished Baby Love which has been on my "to read" list for a while. I've been enjoying not working and catching up. The book had some very poignant discussions while Walker always knew that she wanted to be a mother....this ambivalent person does not know and does not know how one decides on motherhood. I think that if we ever have children, I would like to journal as she eloquently did on motherhood.

The new apartment is good. I hope that cHubby feels a bit less homesick now that we are settling into life again. We have a very executive style living apartment. It's different and I'm warming into it.

We're planning on going to Korea for Christmas. Not quite sure how to tell the family in the US that we are going to see my Korean family instead. I called my dad and told him that if we can get off work, we will come to visit. He seemed excited and just said "Come, Come". When I'm talking to him, I just always see his smiling face and it makes me happy; even thinking about him now, just makes me smile. I'm really lucky that cHubby is so understanding and is sharing this experience with me. If I was in his shoes.....I don't know if I would be as understanding as he is.

Our trip to Noumea was great. It wasn't as relaxing as what I hoped it would be but it was fun. cHubby and I enjoy fine dining, wine, and traveling with another couple and their friends. We booked this holiday 8 months in advance and it was a good timing for all of us. Except that we didn't realize that we would be moving as well. We move next week to our apartment in the city. I haven't seen it but cHubby is pumped about being a minute away from work.

While in NC, we went for a dive. cHubby breathes fairly fast so we had to come up early from our dives. On the second dive, I fell down some stares and bruised myself fairly bad. I was walking in my flip flops on some wet metal stairs. I think that I was holding on and just lost control. I've never been graceful. cHubby said that he hear a thud and knew that it was me. I was supposed to be behind him but I wanted wash my feet off for some reason. I remember falling and thinking that I was going to drown when my face fell into the water. I tried taking pictures of the bruised but they didn't turn out well. I knocked my head but I was still conscious and went out for the second dive. The water was great and we were really close to sharks, fish, and a turtle!

The Noumea wasn't very nice but I think we had fun with poker, Malibu lychee sorbet drinks, and the beaches.

Now that I quit my job, I backed out of the adoptee film event. I just feel that I need to focus on finding another job and getting the new apartment organized. We're moving everything ourselves!

cHubby is more homesick now than before we left. He wants to go back to America. He's stressed because we are moving from Manly and he's a bit tired with his job. We've been looking at apartments in the ridiculous 15 minute slots that apartment hunting in Sydney has to offer. City or beach? I vote beach but cHubby is tired of the commute and wants to move into the city. We tried negotiating with our landlord to decrease rent and we have crappy neighbours but I'm going to miss the 3 minute walk to the beach in the summer. When we move to the city, I'm going to quit my job. It's funny because I was the one who wanted to move to the city to begin with when we first arrived at Oz.

We are heading on vacation in a couple of weeks to New Caledonia with some friends. It should be fun. cHubby and I haven't been on vacation with other people before so we'll see how it goes. It should be a relaxing time. Vacation from our vacation from the US. It's hard to believe that two weeks ago, we were fishing on the Mississippi. Our trip to America seems so distant.